creativity
-
‘The enemy is our chattering brain’
•
1 min read
Don’t prepare. Begin. Remember, our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses,…
-
What does it mean to do work?
•
2 min read
The word ‘productivity’ was originally an agricultural term meant to assess the output of farmers. As technology replaced field labor and allowed people to move into cities, productivity turned man into a machine. Instead of plowing the fields, people cultivate threads of emails. They label manila folders into ten different categories. Indulging in the work-related…
-
How to appear completely
•
1 min read
It’s a place where we disappear, locked in thought of the imagination. The pen moves mightily, an effortful attempt to get locked in with each written word. Each sentence is a constant beginning, a chance to practice a stroke of brilliance. We just might get it, someday. Get what, you ask? Perhaps nothing but the…
-
Do you want to drive the car or polish it?
•
2 min read
Do you want to drive the car or polish it? That’s the metaphor best-selling author Karl Ove Knausgaard uses to cure writer’s block. Writes Quartzy: “Writer’s block, to the extent it exists, stems from a suspicion that your work may not be great, and a reluctance to face that fact. When you’re always polishing the…
-
Take the information you need and throw it away
•
1 min read
There it was, knocking at the door of imagination and begging us to take it for a walk. The mistake we all make is assuming we have all the information we already need. After all, Google spits up all the answers. But just because every grade school has an art class doesn’t ensure that the…
-
The language of art
•
1 min read
Poems are made of sound. Photos conjure up words. Creators, like linguists, endeavor to translate their work into narratives that make sense. Artists are storytellers just as much as they are makers. They spend some time consuming content but more time recreating it, recasting their influences, inspirations, and identity into their work. To be in…
-
When in doubt…
•
1 min read
Let your art make the rounds. Don’t hide it. Don’t try to be everywhere. Pick a place and be consistent. Rules are recommendations. Feel free to break them, recast, and remix them. Rest when you’re underperforming. Don’t quit. The muse is nonexistent. Inspiration is bunk. Habit is a bicep curl for the brain. I hope…
-
Story unbridled
•
1 min read
Make yourself not begin. Keep postponing your creative impulses until you store up some more thinking. The forest always hides secrets. When you keep gathering string, the variables appear endless. But the extra attending is crucial. The unbridled story is no longer a diversion when it becomes destiny. Once the end of the rope ceases…
-
No one is normal
•
2 min read
The environment that we live in intends to become a part of our mind. But there’s always a mismatch between who we know we are and what others expect us to be. Human beings are intricate. No one individual is alike. Mimetic thinking makes us feel worse, not better in the long-run. Conforming is like…
-
Collecting references
•
1 min read
Without knowledge, it’s hard to be curious. We need reference points to make connections and inspire deeper thinking. Give a teenager a car and a detailed Google Map, but unless they’ve got some training, they are going to increase the likelihood of an accident. Give a kid some crayons and some looseleaf paper, but without…
-
‘Propped’ by painter Jenny Saville
•
1 min read
“Human perception of the body is so acute and knowledgeable that the smallest hint of a body can trigger recognition.” — Jenny Saville, Propped (1992) The former Glasgow School of Art student sold this painting at Sotheby’s for £8.3 only to be overshadowed by Banksy’s self-destructing piece.
-
‘I came to painting to hang my ideas on a nail’
•
1 min read
“I came to painting to hang my ideas on a nail.” Georges Braque, “La musicienne, 1918”